Lillie Lee Hearn

Lillie Lee Hearn was, according to her 1911 passport application, born 15 Oct 1883 in Passaic, NJ. She was the youngest child of Bridget Augusta Heath and Edwin Ross Hearn.

Bridget Augusta died in 1888 nine days after Lillie's fifth birthday. The family seems to have remained in New Jersey at least through 1892. The historical rosters of the Virginia Military Institute note that Lillie's brother Edwin Ross Hearn Jr "matriculated August 31, 1892 from Passaic, New Jersey."

By 1894, the family had moved to New York City. Five editions of Trow's New York City Directory, published annually for the year ending July 1, list Edwin R Hearn Sr as living at 158 West 77th Street for the period July 1894 through June 1899. Edwin is not listed in the 1891-1892 or 1892-1893 directories, and I was unable to access the directory for 1893-1894.

Edwin Ross Hearn Sr died in Los Angeles 11 Mar 1899. His will, written 05 Nov 1898, was interesting. He named his brothers Frank J Hearne and William J Hearne as executors. (He spelled his own surname once with an -e at the end and once with.) To his son "Edwin R Hearne" (Jr), he left 50 shares of the capital stock of the Riverside Iron Works in Wheeling, West Virginia. He then divided the remainder of his estate among his four daughters, Elizabeth A Hearne, Mary Frances Hearne, Anna Theresa Hearne and Lillie Lee Hearne. They were to the receive the "rents, issues and income" from the estate, paid out in quarterly payments, for ten years after their father's death. After ten years, they were to receive the corpus of the estate.

This will was to cause future problems. Edwin Ross Jr was, not unexpectedly, unhappy with it and in later years tried to bargain with his sisters for a larger share of their inheritance. The four sisters don't seem to have been given any kind of instruction in how to manage large sums of money.

I can't find any of Bridget Augusta and Edwin's four daughters in the 1900 US Census. They may have been travelling in Europe. According to the issue of the Sag Harbor L.I. Corrector published 18 Jan 1902, Lillie's sister Annie Theresa met Rudolph John Heise in Berlin in 1900. Lillie may have been one of the "Misses Hearn" who occupied the "Lilly Pond Cottage" at Sag Harbor, Long Island, in the summer of 1901, chaperoned by "Mrs. Dr. Smith." (The reference is to the widow of Dr James W Smith, the cottage's owner, not to the sisters' aunt Mary Hearne Smith.) Lillie would have been 17 years old that summer.

The first time Lillie appears in public records as an adult is in 1910, when she was enumerated as living in Manhattan at 616-620 West 115th Street with a servant, Helen Clinton. Lillie was described as having no occupation but her "own income." Note that by this time ten years had elapsed since her father's death, so she had gained the rights to the principal of her share of the estate rather than just the income.

Edwin v Lillie

On 28 Jul 1911, the New York Sun published a dramatic article titled, "$700 CUT OFF HIS INCOME: Edwin R. Hearn Tries to Compel His Sister to Restore It."

Edwin R. Hearn of Wheeling, W. Va., filed suit here [in New York] against his sister, Lillie Lee Hearn, and the latter's companion, Carrie Hill, to enforce the payment to him of the dividends on 100 shares of United States Steel preferred under a trust deed by which Miss Hearn and two other sisters gave him 100 shares each in trust.

Hearn said in his complaint, filed yesterday, that his father, Edwin R. Hearn, died here in 1899 leaving about $500,000. He made direct bequests to his three [sic] daughters, but gave the the plaintiff only a share of his residuary estate. He says that his share amounts to only $20,000, while his sister Lillie got $175,000. Because she thought there ought to be a more equitable division she and her sisters gave him the income of 300 shares of Steel preferred. After the income had been paid for one year his sister Lillie renounced her agreement.

Hearn charges that Carrie Hill has obtained control over his sister because the latter has no education and business experience, and he wants to compel her to account for her management of his sister's property. Attached to his complaint is a letter written by his sister's counsel to his own lawyer purporting to be instructions from his client regarding the trust deed. The letter said in part:

As she knows this amount of money will only be a temptation to Ed, as it gives him the very opportunity he wants, plenty of money to spend for badness, and he will not have to work and earn a cent as he always said he would not do. She will never believe he has reformed until she has other proof than his own word. She also feels that she and her sisters have shown disrespect to their father by doing the very thing he would not do and would have done if he had thought Ed deserving of this.

Hearn got an order from Supreme Court Justice Giegerich permitting him to serve the complaint by publication on the ground that the plaintiffs are evading service.

Several things come to mind. The first is that this is a lot of brou-ha-ha over $700, even by 1911 standards. The second is that it's pretty rich for Edwin to imply that Carrie Hill was mismanaging Lillie's money simply because Lillie refused to continue paying it over to Edwin.

There are other things that don't add up. I don't know if this is Edwin's fault or that of the Sun. If three of Edwin's four sisters had set up a formal trust, each contributing 100 shares of stock, then the income would automatically been paid to the trust (a legal entity in its own right) rather than to the sisters. It sounds as if Edwin was never given the shares themselves but was only told that his sisters would give him the income. (Annie Theresa was dealing with her own trust problems at this juncture. I'm assuming that the other two sisters were involved the "trust deed" were Elizabeth Augusta and Mary Frances.)

The description of Edwin Ross Sr's will is exactly backwards. Edwin Ross Jr was given a direct, relatively small bequest, after which the residuary estate was divided evenly among the four sisters. In Heise v Wells, it's repeatedly stated that Annie Theresa's share was "of the value of $125,000 or thereabouts." Logically, Lillie too received $125,000 rather than $175,000.

Finally, let's consider that $20,000 was, in 1899, a lot of money. Edwin had that plus at least enough education to get into a post-secondary educational institution, even if he only lasted one year. Plenty of young men at the start of the 20th century started off with less and did more.

I have no information as to the results of Edwin's suit against Lillie.

Carrie Hill and the Voyage to Europe

On 29 May 1911 Lillie applied for a passport to go to Europe, with the intention of returning about 15 Nov 1911. She gave her address as 620 West 115th Street, New York, New York, i.e., the same address she'd been enumerated at in 1910. The application was witnessed by George C Franciscus, a lawyer who had an office at 165 Broadway. The passport was to be sent to the American Express office at 65 Broadway.

Lillie's application was number 53070. Numbers 53071 and 53072 were also witnessed by George C Franciscus and were also to the sent to the same American Express office. Number 53071 was for Carrie Hill, born 01 Aug 1856 at "Richfield" (actually Richford), Tioga County, New York. She too gave her address as 620 West 115th Street and she too was going to Europe, to return about 15 Nov 1911.

Number 53072 was Jennie I Simpson, born 28 Nov "1862" at Peekskill, Westchester County, New York, and still residing in Peekskill. Again, she was going to Europe, to return in the middle of November. All three passports were issued 31 May 1911.

Jennie Irene Simpson was born the 28th of November in, depending on which source you're looking at, 1859, 1860, 1861 or 1862. She was definitely alive when the 1860 US Census was done in August 1860, suggesting that her true birthdate was 28 Nov 1859. Her parents were Percy Salome Hazen - isn't that a great name? - and John Simpson. John died in 1881. Jennie married in 1888 (White Plains Eastern Star Journal, 23 Jun 1888) but divorced her husband eight years later (New York Daily Tribune, 06 Jul 1896). After the divorce she returned to Peekskill to live with her mother. Percy died 17 Jul 1901.

Seven months after her mother's death, Jennie took a four-month European cruise aboard the SS Celtic in the company of her sister and brother-in-law, Sarah and Dwight Herrick (Peekskill Highland Democrat, 08 Feb 1902, 15 Feb 1902, 07 Jun 1902). This seems to have sparked an interest in traveling in Jennie. She undertook a trip to Canada in 1904 (Peekskill Highland Democrat, 06 Aug 1904) and a second trip to Europe in 1907, applying for a passport 04 Jan 1907 and sailing from Liverpool aboard the Celtic 11 Jul 1907 to arrive in NYC 20 Jul 1907.

According to news snippets in the usefully loquacious Peekskill Highland Democrat published 01 Jul 1911 and 08 Jul 1911, Jennie sailed aboard the SS Olympic 28 Jun 1911 and arrived in Liverpool 06 Jul 1911. The news snippets make it sound as if she was travelling with Mr and Mrs H[enry] W O'Dowd, their daughter [Beatrice] and Miss Helen S Husted. However the O'Dowds arrived back in NYC 15 Aug 1911, while Helen Husted returned 05 Sep 1911. Jennie, Carrie and Lillie sailed from Liverpool 18 Nov 1911 aboard the SS Lusitania, arriving in NYC 24 Nov 1911. (Note that Edwin apparently filed his lawsuit while they were in Europe.)

It seems likely that Carrie and Jennie either met when Carrie was living in Peekskill in her twenties or were introduced later by mutual acquaintances from Peekskill. Carrie was the daughter of Mary E Ferris and Stephen Hill, the second of their four daughters: Eva, Carrie, Susie F and Mila A. Stephen Hill was enumerated as living with his parents, Anna and Uriah, in Richford, Tioga County, New York, as of 1850. By 1855 he and Mary Ferris had married. They and their daughter Eva were living with Anna and Uriah. By 1860, they'd moved to a separate household nearby, and Carrie and Susie had been born. Mila was born in Richford in 1861.

Anna Hill may or may not be the Anna Hill born 1794 who died in 1862 and is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Berkshire, Tioga County. Certainy by 1865, both Hill households were gone from Richford. By 1870, Eva and her grandfather Uriah were living in Belvidere, Boone County, Illinois, with Uriah's daughter Martha Hill Hull and Martha's husband Walter. (Eva eventually married and died in Boone County.) Meanwhile Mary had taken the three younger girls back to Carmel, Putnam County, New York, where she had family. Mary died there in 1872, leaving Carrie (15), Susie (13) and Mila (11). The three girls may have been split up among different relatives after their mother's death. Certainly they were all living in different places by 1884.

The Putnam County Courier published 14 Feb 1874 lists Carrie among the school teachers hired for Mahopac Lake and Falls in Putnam County. By 1880, however, Carrie had moved in with her paternal uncle Uriah Hill in Peekskill, Westchester County. 1880 was the last time Carrie appears in a US or New York State Census until 1920. However, she's mentioned not infrequently in social news items in the Peekskill Highland Democrat, the Putnam County Courier and the Mt Kisco Recorder. For example, here's an item from the Mt Kisco Recorder published 06 Jun 1884:

Miss Susie Hill has been spending a couple of weeks, visiting her aunt, Mrs. Alred Hunter, of Moger avenue. Her sisters, Miss Carrie Hill, of Peekskill, and Miss Mila Hill, of Brewsters [sic], and Mr. and Mrs. Addison Coles, of Baldwin Place, and Miss Lena Halstead, of West Somers, spent Thursday of last week at Mrs. Hunter's.

"Mrs. Alfred Hunter" was Mila A Ferris Hunter (Putnam County Republican, 25 Oct 1902). "Mrs. Addison Coles" or Cole was Emily Ferris Cole. Emily's obituary published in the Putnam County Courier 30 Dec 1927 mentions that she was an only child, so she wasn't a sister of Carrie Hill's mother. She may have been a cousin. Lena Halstead appears to have been just a friend.